


Thoroughfare: The Suddenly Fast Life of Jaime Preciado

by CaitClandestine



Category: Pierce the Veil
Genre: M/M, Various cameos by people from other bands
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-27
Updated: 2016-08-22
Packaged: 2018-04-06 10:06:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 19,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4217520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaitClandestine/pseuds/CaitClandestine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Twenty-two year old Jaime's life isn't going so well. Sudden unemployment, a cheating girlfriend and moving back in with his parents aren't the signs of the successful life he was surely supposed to have. In a desperate attempt to make enough money to move out again he lets his slightly crazy bookmaker uncle get him a job at the local racetrack and Jaime's never been so sure of his imminent death via rampaging beast.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: Starting Off Slow

**Author's Note:**

> So I had this idea okay, and this is that idea

Jaime's life is the epitome of exceptionally shitty right now, and considering he's living in the gem of California, perpetually sunny San Diego with it's vast, beautiful beaches and brimming with attactive people in barely there swimwear it's a big call to make.

The girl he'd thought he'd marry has just left for him a complete dick of a guy with a smooth Italian accent and a bright red Porche. Jaime knows this because he came home early one night from work and caught them fucking in the backseat, garage door wide open like they just couldn't wait for him to find out. She says they were drifting apart but when Jaime feels especially vindictive, which is quite ofen, he thinks the only thing that was drifting apart was her legs for Mr Italiano.

He's just lost his position as night manager at Costco because they're 'downsizing' and 'the economy, you know' and 'they'll give him a call if anything turns up'. He's been working there since he was eighteen, never went to college or took classes or got qualified for anything else. They're letting go of enough people that there's probably going to be no one left to give him a proper reference for whatever shitty job he gets next.

Their apartment, right by the beach and which he'd been paying half of the rent on had been in her name and now everything he owns his loaded onto the back of his crappy beat up Chevy, the same one his parents had bought for him when he was sixteen. God, he's having to move back in with them. His older sister is a nurse in New York, his older brother manages a carpet store in LA and he's now jobless and taking back his old bedroom. 

It'd be okay, moving back home if it was just his parents he had to face and not his grandparents on his fathers side, two aunts, one uncle and about five nieces and nephews too. Jaime loves his big family, adores them but they're really at their best when they only have to be in close quarters for birthdays and major holidays, for just long enough that it's still exciting.

When he starts carrying his sad, picked up on the side of the road cardboard boxes of all his stuff inside his uncle smiles broadly at him from where he's sat on the porch, beer in one hand and race form in the other.

“Jaimito” He says loudly, because it's always loudly with Pierre Preciado, “If you need a job you come and talk to me okay, there's always work down at the track, I can fix you right up”

Jaime decides that now isn't the time to mention that there's probably always work because people keep getting killed because horses are one of the most dangerous animals on the planet. He's never been near one in his life and really can't see that changing anytime soon. They're big, potentially lethal beings that can like, crush you to death by accident and if they don't get you the first time they can sure as hell outrun you to try again.

So no, he's going to politely decline the generous offer. He's not that desperate.


	2. A Dangerous Decision

Two agonisingly slow weeks later Jaime's beginning to reconsider his thoughts re: working at the track. 

He loves kids, especially his little nieces and nephews because they're adorable and have that 'Preciado charm' his mother always talks about but he's three seconds away from spending his last few dollars on some duct tape to shut their tiny little chattering mouths. 

His first aunt, because he's got so many they're numerical at this point – he's up to number nine that he's actually met, is forever at him to find another girl, a less slutty one this time and the other, number four, sits in front of the TV and refuses to switch it over to a Spanish language channel, instead insisting she needs to learn more fluent English by way of yelling across the house at him in Spanish whenever there's a word in the subtitles she doesn't understand. 

He needs to get out.

He ignores his uncle's wide smile as he begrudingly asks about the possibility of a job, tries not to cringe out of the way of the large palm that comes to ruffle through his already permanently messy hair. 

There's three things the Preciado's are known for; their charm, their undying love for physical affection and how loud they are. His uncle is the embodiment of all three. 

It's the charm element that most likely makes him successful at his job of convincing people to part with money they can't afford to lose. 

The only other thing Jaime knows about horse racing, apart from horses being living, breathing deathtraps is that it's an industry filled with criminals, drugs and dirty money. Sure, maybe there's some picture perfect farms run by picture perfect dudes like you see on TV for the Triple Crown but not here, not this close to the border. It's far too easy to get rid of excess finances without ever getting caught, no way to track what comes and goes and no one to care too deeply as long as some of it comes their way. 

People get themselves into debt and never get out and Jaime has no doubt that his uncle has few qualms about taking bets from them anyway.

The next morning Pierre knocks on his bedroom door a little after eleven, announces that he's indeed managed to find him a job or at least an interview of sorts, something Jaime thinks is just to evaluate how likely he is to get killed because he very specifically told his uncle to make it very clear he doesn't know shit about horses. 

It's that afternoon, with an apparently well known local family running under the name of Victory Thoroughbreds. All Jaime's hoping for is the small, personal victory of getting in and out without getting his fingers bitten off or something.

He doesn't even have a persons name to go on as he catches a ride with Pierre to the track, his uncle just shrugging and saying he'll find them, everyone knows who they are. He does his best to listen to the mumbled directions the other man gives him to find the right stable block from around his cigarette and Jaime's never even been to the races here before, has no real idea where he's going.

Pierre doesn't hang around, disappearing towards the bar maybe, waving a hand in the general opposite direction as he goes, leaving Jaime alone in the parking lot.

He starts walking down a wide path surrounded by elegant gardens filled with roses, past stone archways and the further he goes along the less fancy it gets, the view in front of him suddenly row upon row of charcoal coloured corrugated iron sheds and black asphalt under his feet. Definitely not as glamourous as it looks on TV. 

When he starts walking between the buildings, along the narrow gaps the sunlight seems to disappear despite still being early in the afternoon, the shadows making everything seem cold, impersonal. There's people around, stereotypical small, thin, beady-eyed men who watch him with disdain, teenage girls carrying buckets and wheelbarrows, conversations pausing he goes by. 

Still, he can't actually hear any horses like, screaming or anything and that's good, right?

It takes him a good ten minutes to find block E after walking around block C twice, marked only by a long-faded sign stuck to the heavy sliding gate at it's entrance and already it seems substantially quieter here than the other blocks.

Shit, his uncle probably meant well known as in the creepiest, most potentially criminal dudes of all. 

A clattering distracts him his thoughts on the likelihood of his murder by human and maybe it's a horse but he can't see against the contrasting light between outside the block and inside, the noise getting louder and louder until suddenly there's a very big, very black horse very close to him. Barely a foot away as it races out with a person beside it and it looks every bit as menacing as Jaime knew they'd be.

He can't help but let out a tiny, startled shriek and the horse spins so fast he barely sees it, it's front feet coming off the ground as it pulls sharply at the rope attached to it's head, eyes rolling and quite frankly Jaime's very happy he went to the bathroom before they left.

The person at the other end of the rope, a tall, thin man wearing jeans, tank top and liberal covering of tattoo's struggles to keep his grip and dimly Jaime wonders why he doesn't just let go.

“Fuckin' easy Bob, easy” The man says and seriously, this death beasts name is fucking Bob? 

Bob pulls at the rope again, feet clacking against the ground as he spins back the other way, almost jogging on the spot and giving Jaime what he's sure is a murderous look. The man seems satisfied, loosens the rope a little, turns to face him.

“What the fuck were you thinking screaming like that, are you a fucking idiot with a death wish or did you get dropped on your head as a child?”

The words are harsh, vicous and this, this Jaime wasn't expecting. The guy looks intimidating, the dark ink on his skin flashing like a warning, his lips pulled up into a snarl as he glares. He's got long, dark hair pulled into a high ponytail and it'd almost be ironic If Jaime could just get his heart to stop racing. 

“Well, which is it?” The man snaps again, “Because if you want to get yourself killed there's plenty of easier ways”

“Um, I - ” Jaime says awkwardly, before he's interupted by more clattering from inside the block and this time he's not taking any chances, skitters backways and presses himself against the cold metal of the door as another horse comes flying out. 

He doesn't make a sound.

This horse is bigger than so called Bob, a weird orange colour and another man is leading it, snapback pulled low over his head as he walks past and then circles back towards them, coming to a stop beside angry tattooed guy.

New guy doesn't say a word, just looks towards him and then back to angry guy and Jaime really, really doesn't want to get caught up in something, not when he's barely been here five minutes.

“I'm Jaime and i'm really sorry for screaming it's just that i've never seen a horse in real life and they're kind of terrifying” He says in rush, heart still racing. 

Angry guy doesn't look impressed, but he gives Jaime a curt nod before turning to the man holding orange. The man, kid? Mankid? The more Jaime looks at him the younger he looks. 

“Here” Angry says to Orange, holding out the rope that's attached to Bob, “Take Bob down and get in line, i'll deal with this”

Normally Jaime would complain about being referred to in such a way but he does want to live and crossing angry guy right now doesn't seem like the best idea.

Orange just nods, steps forward to take the rope and turns around, leading both horses calmly away, like Bob hadn't just summoned his inner killer to try and take Jaime's life.

The fact that they're leaving finally lets him get some spit into his dry mouth, unfreeze from his spot.

Angry sighs audibly. 

“I'm Mike, Fuente's son” He offers grumpily, holding out a hand that Jaime shakes, pointedly ignoring how sweaty his own is.

“You're Preciado's what, grandson?”

“Nephew” Jaime gets out, sounding more confident than he feels right now.

“Right” Mike says, in a tone that implies he doesn't really care. “He said he knew someone who didn't know much about horses but I didn't think he meant being fucking terrified, at what point did you think yes, this is a great idea?”

Mike's anger has faded into what might be mildly irritated amusement. Great, five minutes and he's a giant joke.

“I'm pretty desperate” Jaime admits, “I thought i'd see how it'd go, but I can leave?” He offers, not too proud to back down from this, leave with what little dignity he has left. He feels bad for wasting this guys time when he's clearly in the middle of doing something. 

Mike shrugs at him. “I'm not the boss” He says, “But if you try to lay off on the screaming i'll take you to him, alright?”

Jaime just nods, resists the urge to apologise again. Mike starts to walk away, head into the block itself and Jaime follows close behind. It smells like hay and something else weird that he can't place, stables on each side, two buckets in front of each in a kind of organised chaoes. The floor's littered with sawdust and straw, a few horses poking their heads out of half-doors as they go past and Jaime keeps strictly to the middle of the wide concrete aisle, not wanting to get too close.

“Hey, dad” Mike calls out to hunched figure about halfway down, mixing something in a large, green plastic tub. “I found the help”

They get closer and Jaime finds himself shaking the hand of a short, round man with a mustache who smiles at him, bright and genuine.

“Preciado's nephew, right?” The man asks politely and when Jaime nods, “I'm Victor Fuentes and I see you've met my youngest son here, Michael”

Jaime nods again, like he's a fucking bobblehead.

“I've gotta go help Tony swim” Mike announces, giving him a final unimpressed look before turning heel and striding away. Fuck, Jaime's so fucking dead. 

“Pierre mentioned you didn't have much horse experience” Mr Fuentes says, adding some kind of grain to his tub from another bucket. Jaime knows that either he tells Mr Fuentes now that he's an idiot or Mike will surely do it for him and he's got no desire to get caught straight out lying. Again, he's not so desperate for this job. 

“None actually” Jaime says sheepishly, head low. “I ran into Mike and uh, Bob outside and I might've screamed, but i'm really sorry and I swear it won't happen again”

Yeah, not desperate his ass. He absolutely needs to move out before he kills someone and at least if he dies here he won't have to go home.

Mr Fuentes paused in his mixing and looks up at him with that might be a twinkle in his eye. 

“Not fearless then” He says, and Jaime hangs his head. This is the worst job interview ever, even beating that one time he'd turned up for a summer job at a furniture store wearing his slippers. He's essentially turned up demanding a job at Facebook when he's got a degree in like, tomato growing.

“That's good sometimes” Mr Fuentes continues and Jaime's rush of degrading thoughts comes to abrupt stop. What?

“Means you're less likely to rush into something that'll get you hurt, that you might actually do what a lot of people around here don't, which is think things through for more than three seconds”

Of course being unwilling to die is a selling point in this line of work, whatever it is exactly he's asking to do. 

“We mostly need someone to help clean out the stalls, feed and water” He carries on in his quiet, patient tone, “I can teach you how to work with the horses as long as you can hold a shovel right”

Jaime's a tad confused. He just got his head bitten off – nearly literally, for being scared and now being wary is a good thing and he might actually be getting a job out of this? 

“I used to mix concrete, by hand” He says, because that's approximately the only time he's ever held a shovel. He doesn't know if he was doing it right but he's still got all his toes. 

Mr Fuentes puts down his tub, rubs his hands on his jeans and smiles at him again, so he must seem qualified enough.

“Come down to the office with me and we can talk business”

The office turns out to be a repurposed stall at the other end of the block, piled high with bags of feed, barrels and there's a good smell that reminds Jaime of his mothers baking, sweet and rich.

A tiny desk sits scrammed in the back right corner, scattered with papers and empty coffee cups. 

“Have a seat” Mr Fuentes say, gesturing with a wry grin what appaears to be a strategically placed bag of grain. 

Half an hour later and Jaime's back in the land of the employed. He can't really believe he's not only agreed to become what's apparently called a stablehand but he'd actually thanked Mr Fuentes profusely for the opportunity. Just being near horses has done something to his brain. He's going to die. Jaime Preciado, killed by his own stupidity because living with his mother was just so awful. He's going to need a bigger headstone to fit it all on.

It's minimum wage to start with and while Jaime thinks he should be getting danger money it's at least thirty hours a week, morning and afternoon and he's pretty much got the rest of the day to himself, doesn't even have to work weekends unless there's racing on. 

Strangely, he's okay with the idea that his entire job description is based around picking up horse crap. As long as there's no horses in with him when has to do it. He tells Mr Fuentes as much and the man laughs at him, reassures that they'll start gradually with the horse part.

He starts tomorrow, needs to buy a pair of work boots and he hopes that maybe his uncle will spring him the money, or his father. His precious toes need as much protection as they can get.

On his way out he passes Mike and Tony, leading the same horses who are now inexplicably wet and he gives them a wide berth, catches Mike's eye. 

“See you in the morning?” Mike asks gruffly as they walk briskly past and Jaime barely has enough time to manage a squeaky yes before they're gone. It's quite possible that Mike might kill him before any horse gets the chance to.


	3. Best Foot Forward

The next morning finds Jaime pulling into the parking lot at the back of the track in near darkness, the early morning air thin and crisp. It's a little before five as he blows on his cold fingers one last time before leaving the precious warmth of his truck.

He makes his way past some of the track, can see horses on it, quick black shadows illuminated by the harsh flourescent lights that seem to be everywhere.

Everyone stares at him again as he goes by, as if they know he doesn't belong and Jaime makes very sure to keep out of the way of people leading horses with riders back and forth, the clack clack clack of their feet serving as an ample early warning. He's a quick learner.

Victory block is again quiet as he enters – only after peering cautiously around the corner to check for traffic and several horses make weird, muffled noises at him as he goes past and Jaime hopes that they're not sending the message around that he's to be eaten first, is the weakest link.

Despite his determination not to, he very nearly does shriek when Mr Fuente's voice calls out to him from directly to his left, from inside a stall with a big, brown horse in it, long white stripe on it's face. An evil stripe.

“Good morning, glad to see you found your faw in the dark, it's a bit of a maze out there”

“Morning” Jaime returns, stepping hesitantly closer to the half door, watches the horse carefully.

“Today I just want you to start getting used to things, meet everyone and you can come down to the track with me and watch the horses run out before I put you to work” Mr Fuentes says, “That's why you're here a bit later, after this it'll be at four so I hope you're a morning person”

Jaime absolutely isn't. 

“Sounds good” He replies and he means it because he appreciates that he's not just going to be picked up by some giant mysterious guy and thrown on the back of a horse. In fact, he might get through today without even having to be that close to one. Things could be worse. 

“This is Benny” Mr Fuentes introduces, and Jaime raises an eyebrow. Bob and Benny. Really?

He must be making a face because Mr Fuentes gives him a fond look. “They all have fancy racing names of course, but we usually give them something easier to remember and I think Benny likes Benny more than Victory Triple Shot, don't you now?”

God, Mr Fuentes is talking to this mammoth creature like it's a damn dog. It's weird but apparently Benny does indeed seem to like his name because he swings his big, hairy head around to nudge at Mr Fuente's shoulder.

Jaime stays mostly quiet as he watches Benny get brushed all over, then his feet picked up because hey, why not move those feet even closer to ones head for easier skull cracking access? Mr Fuentes starts to talk then, as he puts what Jaime rather smugly knows is called a saddle on Benny's back, naming bits and pieces of other items that Jaime knows he'll never remember in a million years as he puts them on as well.

The familiar horse-approaching noise echoes against the floor as a horse is led towards them and Jaime shoves his fear of Benny down and presses himself against the half door. Mr Fuentes might have let out a huff of laughter but Jaime doesn't care, he's going to live. 

It's the big orange horse from yesterday, being led by Tony and followed by Mike, who's wearing some kind of vest and swinging a black helmet from his fingers. Jaime could be covered in bubble wrap and kevlar and he'd still not even consider being on a horse. The horse is saddled up and covered in sweat as it prances down the aisle.

“How'd he do?” Mr Fuentes calls out and the orange is guided to a stop though he keeps shuffling his dinner plate sized feet against the concrete.

“Hit the mile and still wanted to go” Mike says, patting the horse on the neck before coming to stand beside Jaime, leaning against the wall. “And he got himself another rose on the way back”

“The gardeners are going to have my head” Mr Fuentes says with a chuckle and Mike laughs too. They seem too happy to be like, underground criminal masterminds, Mike's plentiful ink not withstanding.

Tony and orange continue and Jaime steps quickly back as Mike leans forward to slip the bolt out of the door, slide it open.

“Mike's going to take you down and introduce you to Vic, that's my other son and you can watch them practice while I get some of the others ready to go out” Mr Fuentes says, before he turns to Mike.

“I'm sure it's very tempting, but try to behave yourself around Jaime, alright?”

Mike gives Jaime a withering look. Fuck. Maybe Mike isn't as nice as his father. He could totally be running his own little crime ring without anyone knowing. 

“He'll be safe” Mike says shortly, taking the proffered reins – a word that Jaime can remember, seeing as how it's only four letters long – and waving a lazy hand at Jaime.

“When I bring him out you walk right beside me, that's the safest place” He says gruffly and Jaime nods as Mike leads Benny straight out and then turns to the right and he promptly shuffles forward and makes like glue. 

He wishes it were Mr Fuentes he were stuck to, but the old man just beams and at him goes to pick up his box of brushes, not caring that he's sending Jaime off into questionable territory.

Benny doesn't seem all that wild as he clacks slowly down the aisle in the opposite direction Jaime had come in from, coming out the other side onto a dirt path sided by short green grass. They take a sharp left, head past concrete blocked areas filled with dirty sawdust and smaller areas with buckets and hoses and Jaime sticks close to Mike, wide eyed and nervous. 

Soon enough they pass all these potentially lethal objects you could get thrown into and a large ring comes into view, bright white fence stark against the false light and slight blue of the sky to their right. It's filled with sand, a lone figure sitting on top of the gate as they approach, watching them.

Jaime wants to ask why they're here and not at the actual racetrack but thankfully Mike provides him with the answer before the question even leaves his lips. 

“Benny's still in training, so we work him here first” He says flatly, “Vic's going to ride, you're going to watch and i've got other things to do”

The guy does not mince his words. 

They reach the ring and the figure on the gate hops down, causing Benny to jump a little which prompts Jaime to jump a little, ever wary. Mike just sighs.

“Vic, Jaime, Jaime, Vic” He says, “You can chat when i'm gone”

Vic smiles politely at him and he isn't anything like Mike, is as short as his brother is tall, caramel skin and wavy brown hair poking out from underneath the helmet he's wearing. He's got a vest too, wrapped snuggly over the too-big grey hoodie he's wearing and Jaime knows that logically, jockeys are little guys but he never imagined them quite like this. 

Vic looks like a fucking kid, long arms and lanky little legs and the top of his head barely reaches the bottom of Benny's neck, what might be a shoulder if horses and dogs are kind the same. Jaime's familiar with dogs. 

The guys got a knee strapped up, thick black material against the light blue of his pants, matching wrap around his wrist on the same side and the picture he makes screams that this is a stupid fucking sport that gets people killed. 

“Hey” Vic says, tone far more friendly than Mike's has been so far, “Word is that you're a screamer” He punctuates his sentence with a wink and Jaime tries not to blush like a schoolgirl. It's just harmless innuendo and if anything proves that he's going to like Vic, his stupidity by being involving in this not withstanding, a lot more than he likes Mike.

Mike's opened the gate, led Benny through and Vic ambles along behind and closes it, gives Jaime another oddly charming smile.

“Sure you don't want to go first?” Vic asks and Jaime shakes his head. “I'm very good at um, supervising?” He says, and Mike snorts. 

In the middle of the ring Mike slides the reins over Benny's head, hands them to Vic who steps up and then, almost quicker than Jaime can see, Mike grabs his leg and practically throws him up onto Benny's back as Benny almost immediately starts to walk off, which seems really fucking unsafe. 

Neither of them seem particularly bothered and as Vic slides his feet into the little metal rests on the side of the saddle Mike steps away, starts walking back towards Jaime. He doesn't say anything, just bends down and slides himself through two of the fence panels, pauses on the other side to give him another unreadable but distinctly unimpressed look before he keeps walking, leaving him alone with Vic.

If something bad happens Jaime is going to be completely unhelpful. Although, the way Vic is wrapped up signals that something bad has already happened, so maybe lighting won't strike twice? 

Vic doesn't speak as he and Benny power walk their way around the ring and Jaime watches the indents they make in the sand as they get faster and faster until this tiny fucking dude is leant forward like all that jockets Jaime's seen on TV do, tucked up against Benny's neck as they cross through the middle of the ring and back around again. If he ignores how terrifying it is, how scarily close they come to where he's standing on the other side, maybe it's a little bit cool looking.

“Heads up” A voice calls from behind him and Jaime jumps, hopes he isn't about to get trampled by a runaway horse. He isn't, but somehow he managed to be so focused on watching Vic, making sure that he's not flying through the air at any given moment that he hadn't noticed Mike and Tony approaching, Mike riding an orange horse, though not the same giant one from before. This one has white on all it's feet. Jaime likes to keep track of feet, mostly their distance from his vital organs. 

Tony's leading him, another blue rope folded in his other hand and if they think he's going to be leading anything he's going to drown himself in the fountain out front. Vic and Benny make a few more laps as Mike approaches the fences, parks his orange behemoth a little too close for comfort. 

“Morning” Jaime offers to Tony, trying to send out friendly vibes so he won't get crushed.

Mike looks down at him, so high up that Jaime feels almost dizzy looking back. His horse shifts a few steps and Jaime tries to take a very subtle step back away from it.

“We're going to the track now” Mike says, “If you go back through our stables and keep walking you really can't miss it, dad's usually near the straight”

He's relieved that he doesn't have to walk with them, because everyone knows horses only get more dangerous the more of them that are together.

Vic brings Benny to a stop at the gate, Benny snorting unpleasantly close to Jaime's person. Horse snot, fucking disgusting. 

“Can you get the gate?” Vic asks, “It swings out so if you stand on the end of it, not behind that'd be the best way”

Now, normally Jaime would be a little bit pissed off at having something as basic as opening a gate explained to him as if he were a small child but in this case it's okay. He doesn't want his teeth knocked out when Benny inevitably shoots forward and tries to slam the gate into him. It's a little comforting to know that Vic is at least aware of the dangerous elements at play, even if he's just carrying on anyway. 

Jaime gets the gate open and Benny wanders casually through, Vic stopping him in front of Tony who attaches the extra lead to him, once again walking between two giant horses like it's no big deal. 

Jaime closes the gate again as they leave, walks back to the block to find Mr Fuentes waiting for him, stopwatch dangling from a thin leather cord around his neck.

“Didn't want you to get caught up, it's pretty busy at the moment” He man says, and Jaime smiles in relief.

He's right too, as they pass the rest of the blocks there's lots of noise, horses being led this way and that, the occasional shout and general clanking and banging. More than a few people pause in what they're doing to wish them good morning as the sun finally starts poke over the horizon, casting a glow onto the dew damp grass of the track area, a large square sort of field that all the stable blocks seem to lead to, horses appearing from every conceivable direction.

Mr Fuentes leads him expertly through to the white fencing of the track itself and up close Jaime can see that it's more complicated than he thought, not just a circle of grass. There's many layers of fencing, grass, sand and some unidentifable black surface in different rings. They stay on the very outside, next to the grass track.

A horse comes past them in a blur, flicking up clods of earth behind it. It's way too fucking fast. 

They wait a minute, Mr Fuentes fiddling with his stopwatch and pulling a crumpled piece of paper from pocket, ancient looking pen held between his teeth.

“There” He says eventually, pointing down the far end of the track. “There's Benny and Eddy.” Jaime can just make out the silhouette of two horses coming onto the track, can't possibility recognise them. 

For animals that can move at the speed of light it seems to take forever for Vic and Mike to come close enough that Jaime can distinguish the bright orange of who is apparently Eddy and the two of them seem way too relaxed, horses only a few feet from each other as they speed along, heads turned as if they're having a conversation. Christ, no wonder Vic has gotten hurt. He's probably talking about the damn weather or what he had for breakfast.

“Here they come” Mr Fuentes says unnecessarily, since Jaime isn't that blind. “They'll pick up a proper gallop in a moment, it's early in the season yet so we're not working them too hard”

Jaime blinks. Slow as they are coming he knows that they're actually moving pretty quickly and the idea that they can go even faster is ridiculous. 

Despite his feelings though, he kind of wants Vic and Benny to beat out Mike, just because Vic seems you know, a nicer, less scary kind of guy. He can hear them as they get closer, the dull thudding of feet hitting grass and Jaime finds himself leaning forward against the fence, watching intently.

Vic's tucked up on Benny's back and Jaime has no idea how he's staying there, leaning over Benny's stretched out neck and he actually appears to be urging the horse faster, which is fucking insane. Mike's holding the same position, but Jaime's rather pleased that Eddy isn't quite keeping up.

They sweep past in an instant, Mr Fuentes hitting a button on his stopwatch and smiling to himself and Jaime keeps watching as they keep going, up the straight part of the track and around the first curve at the top, catching up with other, slower horses and becoming indistinguishable again.

“So” Mr Fuentes says, “What do you think?”

“I think they're insane” Jaime blurts, unable to get his brain to mouth filter to work in time, a common issue he has. 

“Sorry” He mumbles immediately but Mr Fuentes is laughing, patting him on the shoulder.

“You're a breath of fresh air, kid” He says, “You'll fit in here just fine”

They make it back to the stables before Mike or Vic return and Mr Fuentes points him towards a wheelbarrow, shovel and rake.

“It's very simple” He says, “You take out whatever's dirty and replace it with an equal amount of clean sawdust from the pile out the back, the dirty stuff goes in a pile next to it” 

“No horses, right?” Jaime asks, just to be sure. 

“No horses, just do the four down the end that are empty for today”

He's halfway done with the third stall and god, horses are so, so gross, when Vic and Mike return, Vic leading Benny and Mike walking beside Tony who's got Eddy. 

Mr Fuentes appears out of nowhere, starts helping them take the saddles off the horses, sling them over an stall door before taking the two horses off somewhere with Mike. 

“Hey again” Vic says, coming to stand in the doorway as Tony disappears down the aisle, unclipping his helmet and shaking is head to readjust his hair, though nothing is going to fix the frizz that he's got going on - “Having fun?”

“Haven't been trampled yet” Jaime replies and Vic snickers, hands shoved into the pockets of his hoodie.

“That's the spirit” Vic says, “But if you want to keep that streak i'd hurry up because you're doing Eddy's and he doesn't like to be kept waiting”

Jaime might panic just a little, head jerking up as he looks down where Mr Fuentes and Eddy have gone. Vic breaks out into a proper laugh, “The look on your face” He says, “I'm just messing with ya”

Jaime's saved from further embarassment by Tony appearing with another horse, this one the same colour as Benny but without the white on it's face. It's not saddled but Vic wordlessly takes the lead from Tony anyway, spinning the horse around and walking off without so much as goodbye. Not that Jaime was expecting one but you know, it's obvious he's an idiot who needs everything explained to him otherwise he's completely lost.

He catches Tony's eye, gets a blank look in return, almost like the other man can't even see him there, is looking straight through to the wall behind. 

In the stall next to the one Jaime's cleaning is another horse, a reddish coloured one with it's very big behind facing in his direction and it's there that Tony goes, pulling a thick comb from his jacket pocket as the horse turns it's head around, makes one of those weird noises Jaime had heard earlier. 

They work in silence, just the thud and scrape of his shovel and Tony doesn't utter a word as he stands in the most unsafe place in the universe, right behind the horse, it's tail in his hand as he untangles what Jaime can see is a giant, giant knot. He wants to start a conversation, doesn't function well with silence but he's got no idea what to say. Hey Tony, nice brushing? I sure am enjoying scooping poop on this fine morning?

By the time he's finished all four stalls there's a blister on his right thumb and his shoulders ache. Everyone's back, horses all returned to their proper locations and it's taken Jaime all morning to realise that on the wall beside each stall door there's a little smudge of chalk paint and a name written in it, which solves the mystery of how people would know what horse goes where. 

Tony's finished with his horse combing too, is instead wandering up and down the aisle with a hose filling water buckets, Mike distributing hay, a job that risks his fingers as Jaime watches him literally push horses back so he can get in to their feed tubs. 

“Here” Vic says, holding out a broom. “You start at that end” He points to the right, “I'll start at the other and the two shall meet”

Mr Fuentes signs him off for the day not too long after him and Vic finish sweeping, reminds him the afternoon shift starts at three thirty and thanks him for his work like he actually did something. It's not the worst day he's ever had that's going to result in him getting money. 

He returns Vic's wave from the parking lot as he reverses out, the other man throwing a bale of hay into a truck that looks not too much better than his own, but the near-new tyres on it say that it's a well loved machine that runs a hell of a lot better.


	4. All Bark and No Bite

That afternoon there's far less cars in the lot and Jaime's thankful because he does not make a pretty sight as he winces opening and closing the door of his truck. He'd gotten home, eaten a plate of scrambled eggs and fallen back into bed and now that's awake again every muscle from his neck down hurts. He didn't think he was quite this unfit. It's shameful, especially considering the gym membership card that's sitting in his wallet, the one that he'd paid good money for and hardly ever uses. 

He's walking past A block, which seems to the most fancy one if you can judge that by the quality of the wheelbarrows as he walks past – they're shiny and new, clean black tyres that aren't on the verge of being too flat to move – when a small guy appears from inside, catches his eye. 

“Hey, wait!” The small guy says coming out of the blocks shadow and into the sunlight and Jaime wasn't aware that emo was still a thing, thought that kids had moved on. This guy proves wrong that theory though, standing before him with flippy hair as black as his tight jeans, dark green polo shirt and boots not really making him look any more like what Jaime's coming to recognise as a 'horse person'. 

“You're the new guy at Victory, right?” God, Jaime hopes that's not about to be asked to help with something. He doesn't want to make Mr Fuentes look like the kind of person who can only afford to hire morons. 

“Yes?” He answers cautiously and the guy smiles at him and he's all legs like Vic, pale and tiny and thin, decidedly not a hardened criminal by outward appearances.

“I'm Kellin” He announces brightly, holding out a hand with fingers covered in neon coloured band-aids and Jaime knows it's impolite but he totally stares at them as he holds out his own hand.

“Jaime”

“Rope burns” Kellin explains like he'd actually asked like a normal, if nosy human being. “Getting the yearlings on the truck is a real bastard, ya know?”

Another confirmation that horses are indeed scary and awful. Though, trying to squish them into little metal trailers kind of makes it seem like you're asking for trouble.

“Anyway” Kellin continues, “I usually help the guys swim about now, so I thought i'd walk down with you if that's cool?”

The way Kellin speaks makes everything sound like a question but Jaime's pretty sure he's not asking at all. 

“Sure” He says though, because the more people to do things with the horses the less likely they'll ask him and he can hide in the back with his shovel.

Kellin beams at him and it's only then that Jaime notices his eyes, big and round and really fucking blue. They're a little unnerving if he's honest, but that could just be the way Kellin's watching him intently, like he's something really fascinating.

Jaime shoves his hands into his pockets, starts walking. He can hardly call Kellin out for staring when he's just done exactly the same thing. If he knows Vic or Mike, particularly Mike he wants to stay on his good side.

Kellin keeps pace next to him, waving at people as they go by and yelling out hi's and hello's to others and Vic's waiting out the front, leaning against the block with a bottle of water in hand.

“What'd I tell you about picking up strange guys?” Vic says, pushing off the wall and letting Kellin pull him into a hug as Kellin laughs, arms wrapped around Vic' neck.

“That I should do it more often?” Kellin says innocently, and Vic shoves him gently towards the door, “Get your ass to work” He demands and Kellin pokes out his tongue but goes without protest. 

“So you've met Kellin” Vic says, “He works for Riversound Racing, they're the big shots around here but he's cool, a little bitchy sometimes but what are you gonna do”

“Hey, I heard that!” Kellin's voice echoes down the aisle, but he doesn't deny what's been said. 

“He seems nice” Jaime goes with, because there's a gap in their conversation that's supposed to fill and it must be an acceptable answer because Vic nods at him.

“Come on, before he starts whining about doing all the work”

Mike and Tony already have horses out of their stalls, the evil being Jaime recognises as Bob and the big orange. Vic walks straight between them but Jaime comes to a stop, not wanting to be a sandwich. 

“Dude” Kellin says from somewhere Jaime can't see, “I thought you were kidding about the horse thing”

Lovely, he's now a source of amusement for people he doesn't even work for. 

“Nope” Mike says dryly, sending him a pitying look. “Come here”

Jaime very nearly refuses, but then Mike wouldn't actually hurt him in front of so many people, right?

“I'm not going to make you do anything” Mike elaborates, “Just come and stand over here, Bob'll give you a sniff, that's all”

The last time Jaime was sniffed by anything it was Mrs Lance's poodle and it had then tried to bite him in the balls. 

“He won't bite?”

Mike just gives him another look and Jaime very slowly inches his way towards him. He doesn't like Bob. Bob tried to kill him. 

“Don't scream though” Mike says, “He won't like that”

Jaime pre-emptively decides to clamp a hand over his mouth just to be sure. He can do this. He's a grown man and if tiny little guys like Vic and Kellin can do all kinds of crazy shit everyday he can stand within striking distance for a minute. 

Bob's very, very tall and very, very black. His turns his colossal head to look at him with both giant eyes and Jaime takes the final step, squeezes his eyes shut. Kellin starts to say something and Vic tells him to shut up but it all seems so far away.

Then there's something touching his head, warm breath in his ear. He's frozen, couldn't run even if he wanted to. 

“Open your eyes” Mike says quietly, “You're okay”

There's more breath on him, Bob moving his hair about somehow and Jaime opens a single eye, then the other. Bob's nose is about three inches from own, huge nostrils huffing right into his face and hell, Jaime didn't know horses had whiskers. He's also not dead, which is a plus.

“See” Vic says, “He likes you” 

“Bob likes everybody” Mike says diplomatically and Jaime takes that as permission to move away again, watch from a safe distance.

Vic's leading Benny out of his stall then, Kellin following behind with what could be the horse Tony had been combing this morning. Four horses is absolutely way too damn many. Jaime quickly the does the math, that's sixteen legs. Sixteen different directions his demise could come from.

“Walk next to Vic” Mike instructs, patting Bob on the nose before nodding to Tony and leading him off and Jaime quickly crosses to the other side of aisle to fall in step with Vic.

Kellin and Vic talk about god knows what as they walk, Kellin greeting still more people as they go, heading around the back of one of the smaller blocks, a way Jaime hasn't been before. 

It's a good five minutes of walking after that, passing the edge of the track and a few large roofed rings with horses inside, walking in circles with what looks like no one in with them. Jaime's down with that. Robots are the future of this sport.

They come to a stop at a gate and beyond it well, it looks like two long, single laned swimming pools. Kellin had mentioned swimming but Jaime hadn't really thought two deeply about it. Adding in the possibility of drowning isn't good.

Tony opens the gate, lets them all through and as they split into two groups Jaime suddenly becomes aware of what exactly they're trying to do.

“Horses can swim?” He asks curiously, because they don't exactly look like the most water loving creatures. 

Kellin giggles at him, a proper, honest to god giggle. Jaime takes that a yes.

He stays glued to Vic's side as they approach the pool furthest from them and the horse Kellin's holding throws it's head up, sidesteps straight into Kellin's side and Jaime's baffled by how the guy just pushes the horse right fucking back, isn't sent flying. 

“Okay” Vic says, as they come to a stop in front of the rubber-lined ramp into the water, which seems surprisingly clean and almost inviting if it were a little bit warmer.

“Jaime, you go down the other end, just stand to one side, Kellin swap with me, wouldn't want Teeth to try and drown you again”

“Damn right you don't” Kellin agrees and wait, again? Jaime has so many problems with this activity he could write a book on the subject. He'd call it 'Don't Be A Fucking Idiot And Die: Why You Should Stay Away from Horses'.

Naming a horse Teeth has obviously happened for a reason and if Kellin's avoiding it, definitely bad news on the swimming front as well. 

Still, he does as Vic's asked and quickly walks down the other end of the pool, watching as Tony and Mike almost seamlessly urge Bob into the water with several loud splashes, two ropes attached to him and Tony holding Eddy who's desperately trying to pull far enough away to eat what looks like a bunch of clover. This whole thing is stupid.

Once he's at the end he turns his attention back to Vic and Kellin who now have Benny facing the ramp into the water, Vic with a firm grip on Teeth's lead, making the horse stand on the side. Teeth looks practically murderous but Vic seems unphased. 

Kellin attaches two thicker cream ropes to Benny, unclips the blue and folds it around his neck, points at Benny and says something that must mean stay as he walks over to Vic and hands him one of the ropes before taking the other for himself. Benny just stands here, like he's actually understood. 

Kellin heads to the right side of the water and Vic to the left, the ropes pulling taut for a second before Benny prances a few steps, causing Jaime's heart to clench for just a moment before he wanders easily down the ramp, making a weird, awkward looking leap into the shallow water, throwing his front legs about.

Benny goes into the deeper water without protest and it's a little bit interesting, watching him huff his way down the pool, only his head poking out. Horses can swim surprisingly fast and Jaime crosses off running into a river or something to get away from one as a method of escape. 

Teeth causes Vic trouble all the way down, pulling him this way and that and generally looking like she could kill him at any moment but Vic still doesn't seem that bothered, standing his ground against the giant animal. 

They get to the end pretty fast and Vic calls out to him to move back a bit, which Jaime does. 

As the water starts to shallow again and Benny's looming form starts coming up out of the water he sticks his long neck out and shakes, splattering them, well, it might just be mostly Jaime with gross horse water. 

“Duck” Kellin says, lifting his end of the rope up a little as Jaime catches on and does so, don't want to get coathangered if Benny decides to make a run for the track on the other side of them. 

Up this close Benny looks imposing, shaking himself again and Vic's reaching for something by the edge, bends down and comes up with what looks like a window washy scraper thing in hand. 

“Here” Vic tosses it over to Kellin, which causes Teeth to throw her head up and roll her eyes and Vic lets her back up a little. Kellin unclips the ropes and reattaches the blue lead, moves Benny a few steps out of the slightly muddy grass and starts scraping him you would a windscreen, thick splats of water smacking against the grass. 

It's one of the stranger things Jaime's ever seen. 

“Quicker than using a towel” Vic says to him, “They like the water but no one wants to go to bed wet, right?”

“Right” Jaime finds himself agreeing, even if he doesn't really care. His mother always tells him he'll get sick if he goes to bed with wet hair though, so it could make sense if he thinks about it like that. 

“All done” Kellin announces a minute later, reaching up to rub Benny's forehead. 

“You want me to grab him, or are you right?” Vic asks.

“I've got him” Kellin replies, “I'm more worried about you going for a swim than me”

Vic silently raises his middle finger, before he turns back to Jaime.

“Teeth isn't the biggest fan of swimming” He says, and Kellin snorts, “She's fine once she's in, it's just getting her that far”

As if she knows they're talking about, Teeth lowers her head and nudges Vic in the back.

Kellin turns around with Benny, grabbing one end of the swimming rope and making his way to the side of the pool again, Vic coaxing Teeth forward with a series of offputtingly cute kissy noises.

Teeth obliges but refuses to stand still while Vic swaps the ropes over, swinging her big behind all over the place and Jaime makes a point of taking a few extra steps back.

He's not sure this is such a great idea and clearly Teeth agrees with him as Vic takes his place on the other side and both him and Kellin urge her forward. She doesn't go forward. It's more of an up, front feet leaving the ground for a flash second as her back ones seem to sink themselves into the soft ground. She's literally digging her heels in.

At the other pool, Mike and Tony have Bob out and Eddy nearly halfway down. Jaime might have to reconsider his thoughts about Bob. 

“She's such a fucking bitch” Kellin says loudly, “Women, seriously”

On some weird level Jaime agrees. Teeth is kind of awful compared all the Fuentes's other horses so far.

Kellin counts to three then, and they make another attempt to get Teeth in the water and again Teeth refuses, trying to turn around.

The next try earns them a few steps in the right direction and look, Jaime has a lot of issues with this but the most pressing one is that Vic and Kellin are so tiny, so lithe and light and Vic's already gotten hurt somehow and he just doesn't think he should have to do this, fight with this stupid fucking horse in this stupid fucking pool. There have to be bigger, stronger people to do this. 

He wants to help, march his way over and grab the rope because at least he could give Teeth a run for her money.

Five minutes later Teeth is halfway down the ramp, about ankle deep in the water. Does horse have ankles? Jaime doesn't know. 

What he does know that Kellin's come dangerously close to the edge of water more than once, Teeth trying to reel him in by coming down diagonally, closer to Vic. Vic has the rope braced around his waist as he tries to wheedle Teeth by making whispered promises of cookies. 

“Michael, get over here!” Kellin hollers as Eddy comes out of the water, “Come and deal with your stupid fucking horse!”

Jaime's liking Kellin more and more. 

“Yeah yeah” Mike says, but he's handing Eddy over to Tony and coming towards them anyway. 

“Don't try this at home” Mike says to him with a wink before he's quickly walking up beside Teeth and slapping her on the behind with a loud smack. The guy just slapped this huge, predatory creature on the ass and he's lucky he hasn't taken a kick to face for it but Jaime can't help the burst of mildly terrified laughter that shoots from his lips as Teeth shoots forward and if looks could kill Mike would definitely be six feet under right now. 

But it works. Teeth lets out a loud sigh like a proper bitch and wanders into the water like it was her idea all along. 

Kellin makes a happy noise and Mike jogs up to give him a hi-five. 

Vic sighs loudly. “Children, please” He says in an exasperated tone, but there's a grin on his face all the same.

Mike sticks out his tongue in as if in line with his brothers comment before he bows deeply and starts making his way back to Tony. 

They only take Teeth down the pool as Mike and Tony head back to the stables and Jaime appreciates that they're not stupid enough to try and make her go back the other way because she might actually end up hurting someone.

“Hey Jaime, could you bring the scraper down?” Vic calls as Teeth launches herself out of the water, skitters away from it and onto the grass. 

“Sure thing” Jaime replies, picking it up from where Kellin had dropped it before and walking along the length of the pool, carefully going around Kellin and Benny, stopping far enough away from Teeth that she'd have to hate him more than the other two to go for him first and like, they haven't met yet and she probably hates Kellin the most because he called her a bitch. 

Neither Vic nor Kellin say anything, Vic finishing up attaching Teeth's lead and stepping in front of her, reaching out for the scraper with a smile.

“Next week you'll be doing this” He says, and Jaime nearly chokes on his spit.

“No fucking way” He blurts, “I'll die”

Kellin bursts into giggles again, “Oh my god” He says, turning to Vic, “I'm coming around everyday just to see how this works out for you guys, no offence Jaime”

Jaime's a little bit offended. He might be a little bit of an attention whore sometimes but he is not a show for Kellin to watch, not cheap entertainment because he's scared.

“There'll be nothing to see” He says tersely, silently cursing his uncle and then himself for ever agreeing to this stupid fucking job.

“Kels, why don't you take these two back to the barn” Vic says, tone leaving no room for argument.

“Fine, fine” Kellin says, taking the lead Vic offers him, “I gotta get back before Almaraz gets on my case anyway, I might've forgotten to tell him I was leaving”

Jaime promptly feels bad. Vic's trying to stand up for him and to do that he's had to send his obviously good friend away. 

“Sorry” Jaime mumbles, “I know it's fucking stupid, me and this job”

Vic shifts his weight onto his unstrapped leg, looks at him with a warm expression, like he's not upset at all.

“I have to agree that it's a little bit strange, but it's hardly the weirdest thing that goes on around here” He says, “ Kellin's not a mean spirited guy, he just likes drama a little bit more than most people ”

Jaime can't help but crack a tiny smile. 

“And anyway” Vic says, “The last guy we hired tried to steal our feed to resell, are you going to do that?”

It can't be a trick question, right? They're not scoping out his potential criminal skills or something. 

“Uh, no?” 

Vic grins at him, “Then you're not the worst stablehand we've ever had, which is something right, and none of us are going to push you into doing anything, okay?'

“Okay” Jaime returns, and Vic nods at him. 

They don't talk after that, Vic walking with him back to the block and Jaime has some time to consider this whole thing. Vic's nice, weird and small and a little bit crazy for doing this but overall yeah, he's nice. It's only his second ever shift on his first ever day, things are bound to get better. He's okay with being poked fun at, just maybe not as intensely as Kellin had implied. The jury is still out on the guy, Vic's friend or not. 

“Tony, you wanna let Jaime shadow you while you do the hay?” Vic asks as they enter their block, Tony sweeping the pile of dust, hay and dirt he's collected into a dustpan. He gives Vic a long look before he nods just once.

“Awesome” Vic says, “I get the easy job for once”

Jaime wants the easy job. 

Tony finishes his sweeping, picks up his dustpan and starts walking down the aisle after Vic before he pauses, turns his head in a gesture that obviously means Jaime should follow. He doesn't think he's heard the guy utter a single word all day. Maybe he doesn't talk, or maybe he can't. As long as he can call for help somehow when Jaime's got a bleeding stump for a hand it's not really an issue. 

He follows Tony to the feed area, where the dustpan gets emptied into an ancient looking old trash can and then Tony does the head thing again and Jaime follows him into the back corner where a few bales of hay are stacked neatly, almost higher than his head. Probably why Vic didn't want to do this bit. Tony reaches up and effortlessly pulls down a bale, drops it onto a stack of bagged grain and pulls a knife from his pocket, flicking out the blade and cutting the bright blue twine with a sharp snap. He points then, first at the bale and then at Jaime and okay, Jaime can play pack mule. 

It takes him a few tries to figure out how to scoop up the hay all in one piece since it's practically falling apart in his hands and when he looks up as Tony pulls down and cuts open another bale he's sure the guys laughing on the inside, can see it in his eyes. 

Tony seems to have hay carrying all figured out and Jaime quickly adjusts his hands to mimic him, finds instantly that there's no longer errant strands trying to stab him the neck or elbows. 

As he trails behind Tony, who in all honestly is doing all the work – carrying his own hay, opening the stall doors, squeezing past the horses and putting it into their feed tubs they keep running into Vic, who's crossing back and forth across the aisle with the hose, not straight down like Tony had. 

Mike doesn't appear until they're done for the day, comes back carrying a bale of hay in each hand, using the twine as handles and yeah, Jaime doesn't want to be on the guys bad side by the look of the long, sinewy muscles in his arms that flex with the weight. God, he really needs to start working out again.


	5. Fearless and Mad

Jaime's body is not impressed with his new early morning routine. He's groggy, everything hurts and even though he knows he really shouldn't he makes himself a cup of coffee just to get things moving, get him awake and alert enough to not sleepily wander into an occupied stall or something equally as horrible. 

He's not a coffee guy, is definitely enthusiastic enough without the stuff but his mother loves it, always keeps the best grounds in the expensive machine his father had gotten her for their thirtieth anniversary. It's engraved and everying, 'So you can put up with me for another thirty'. His parents are fucking adorable. 

Somehow he arrives a few minutes earily despite misplacing his car keys twice on his way out the door, ends up taking the longer, more scenic route to the stables, passing by a longer stretch of the track. There's a few horses out already, a thin mist across the grass making them seem ghostly and fuck, that's a scary thought, ghost horses. Jaime's not sure if he believes but frankly the idea of a ghost horse is more terrifying than like, a vengeful dude trying to scare you out of his house. 

Jaime keeps a good few feet from the outer fence, can hear a horse approaching from behind him, doesn't want to be in the way should it suddenly decide that it wants to make a bid for freedom and jump it. It's not very high.

“Morning Jaime!” A voice calls out to him and Jaime predictably nearly jumps as high as the fence himself before he turns around and there's Kellin, coming along on a big reddish coloured horse and waving wildly at him. 

Well, at least the guy isn't holding a grudge for Vic sending him away yesterday. 

“Morning” Jaime says, raising his voice a little to be heard and Kellin streers his horse closer to rail, makes it go slower, a weird bouncy speed that looks really uncomfortable. Kellin doesn't seem any more likely a jockey than Vic but he here fucking is, still riding with one fucking hand. They're crazy, the lot of them.

“Tell Vic to hurry up and get his ass out here so I can kick it” Kellin says brightly, “And good luck with the horses!”

Hmm. Maybe Vic had said something to him. Jaime doesn't get a chance to reply because Kellin flies away after that, urges his horse faster and disappears up the track. 

Mr Fuentes is waiting for him in the feed room when he arrives, Tony pointing down the aisle and Jaime wandering until he spots the man surrounded by tubs and buckets and that same warm, good smelling smell. 

“Right on time” Mr Fuentes says with a smile, “I'm almost done mixing then i'll get you to carry them out for me, they're numbered to match the stalls so there's no way to get it wrong”

There's a lot of different buckets of stuff going on and Jaime wonders what everyone else is doing, why they aren't helping. 

“Can I uh, help?” He asks, because hey, there's no horses here. 

“It's all my head i'm afraid” Mr Fuentes says, “The boys and I never do get around to writing it down but carrying them is the hard part, i'm not so young anymore”

Mr Fuentes looks about fifty, but looks are decieving. Horses probably suck the life blood right out of you, so he could be forty. It'd be easier to guess if he knew how old Vic and Mike are. Mike looks about eighteen and Vic twelve but that can hardly be the truth. Even in a place like this there's still gotta be laws about child labor and like, liability insurance and stuff. 

Jaime's job is simple, put numbered bucket next to matching numbered stall and the horses seem really, really unhappy about it, sticking their heads out and looking mournfully at him and Jaime feels almost sympthathic, he wouldn't like his breakfast to be so close yet so far away. 

He gets to stall number five, isn't really paying attention as he bends down to check the number on the side of the bucket until suddenly he's being yanked backwards by a pair of strong arms and he rights himself quickly to see Tony, who lets him go immediately. The guys eyes are wide and last time Jaime saw him he was way down the other end so he must've come fucking running. Fuck, what's he done wrong?

“Is everything okay?” He asks and Tony nods at him, shoving the bucket away with his foot before he points at stall number five, where an orange head is poking out, big brown eyes locked on him. Tony steps to the side, taps the chalk name plate with his fingers. #5 – Teeth. Oh. Shit, Tony just saved him from being eaten. Jaime could almost kiss the guy. 

“Fuck” He breathes, “She was gonna bite me, wasn't she?”

Tony nods again, amusement obvious in his eyes but Jaime can't be mad because he's not bleeding right now. 

“Thank you” Jaime says earnestly, “I guess that means I should pay attention, huh?”

Tony just looks down the floor, shrugs his shoulders. The man is a mystery by all accounts.

He wanders quietly away after that, leaving Jaime with his buckets and he figures that if there were anymore dangerous horses – ones maybe nicknamed kicker or crusher he'd have said something. Mr Fuentes comes out to him when he's on his last bucket, 

“Sorry Jaime, I meant to give you a heads up about old Teeth, she's not the most friendly in her stall”

He looks genuinely upset that he'd forgotten.

“It's okay” Jaime says, “Tony saved me from decapitation”

There's a loud snort from behind him, where Mike has suddenly appeared, arms laden with horse gear. 

“Mike” Mr Fuentes says sternly, “Be nice, why don't you take Jaime with you and Vic”

Mike gives him a glum look that says that he didn't sign up for this shit.

“Sure” Is what comes out of his mouth though, “Come on, we're gonna run Bob”

Mike doesn't make conversation like Mr Fuentes had as he saddles Bob up and Jaime wonders where Vic has disappeared to because there doesn't seem to be any horses missing that he can tell. 

“Left side” Is the gruff command as Mike slides the stall door open, Bob striding out all sleek and shiny and deathlike. Jaime's sure he's looking at him, wondering what he tastes like. The sniff he allowed the horse yesterday does not make them friends.

They walk quickly, steps long and Jaime has to haul ass to keep up without jogging. It's busy and they have to navigate their way around many other horses, Mike offering up a few greetings to people they pass. 

The grass area by the track is busy too, more than a few people being led around on horses, people issuing instructions in low voices and fancy jackets. 

A tall, skinny guy starts walking towards them, wearing the shiniest black boots Jaime's ever seen. Probably jockey boots, tall and practically ironed to his leg, white pants contrasting brightly above and they're absolutely spotless, like he's completely untouched by how dirty horses in general are. 

“Madmike, yo” The guy greets with a friendly smile on his face, “Wonderquinn said that Fearless said you guys had a new kid, he gonna get up and show us how it's done?”

Jaime doesn't understand anything the guy just said but 'Mad' Mike (And that's not a concerning nickname at all) just laughs, offers the guy a fistbump.

“Jaime's strictly on stablehand duties” He says and it's probably the nicest thing Mike's said to or about him period, “Jaime is this is Josh, he's a jockey for the same stable as Kellin”

Josh is kind of fucking tall, Jaime thinks.

“You're kind of tall” Is unfortnately what also comes out of his mouth before he can stop it. 

Josh's eyes narrows a little, but the smile on his face doesn't falter. “As Dan would say, you don't have to be short you just have to be good”

“Yeah well, Dan's almost as bad as you” Comes Kellin's voice from behind them, “Jaime, don't let him convince you he's anything more than a diva who only shows up to ride and wouldn't know a horse shit from one of his own”

Jesus, Kellin doesn't hold back with the attitude. Jaime looks nervously at Josh who merely breaks into a wide smile and reaches over to bonk a closed fist down over Kellin's helmeted head with a thud.

“Kids these days” Josh says in low voice, “No respect for their elders”

They're saved from what Jaime's sure wouldn've been a delightful reply from Kellin by a bearded man in a sleek green sports jacket calling out Josh's name, waving him over.

“Gotta go” Josh says, “If I don't see you later, Wednesday trials, yeah?”

“Sure thing” Mike confirms and with that Josh is gone, across the grass and on a horse and off onto the track in an instant. 

“Fuckin' Flashceschi” Kellin says, patting Bob on the neck and tugging at the blanket under his saddle a bit. “I'm going to put sugar in his stupid smoothies he always leaves in the breakroom so he goes over weight”

“What to last weeks may the better man ride speech?” Mike says with a smirk, “Did you not come out the better man?”

Kellin pouts and crosses his arms. “It's not my fault Almaraz gives him everything actually worth a dime, between him and Dan i'm only left with a couple of three rides”

“Gee” Mike says, “How awful for you”

It's like they're speaking another language. Jaime feels like Chewbacca, a big hairy idiot who really just says nonsense. 

“I see i've found the tea party” Vic's chimes in as he arrives with Tony, vest on one arm as he joins their little group.

“We're just discussing Kellin's amazing level of sportmanship” Mike announces.

“I am a very graceful loser i'll have you know” Kellin protests as Vic laughs, leaning over to pat Kellin affectionately on the shoulder.

“Quinn! Are you talking or are you riding?” Sports jacket man calls out sharply again and Kellin's pout disappears, face snapping into a more serious expression. 

Vic pats him again, “See you out there” 

With Kellin gone it's just the four of them plus Bob, who's been getting increasingly more fidgetey as more horses go past him and onto the track. Can horses get jealous? 

Vic's pulling on his vest then and they all watch as he struggles to untangle the different straps of thick velcro before Mike seems to take pity on him, pushing his brothers hands out of the way.

“You do this everytime, it's not that hard” Mike says fondly, easily undoing the straps like they were never tangled at all.

“If you'd stop leaving them in the backseat and put them where they were supposed to go it wouldn't be an issue” Vic retorts, but he's smiling and not trying to stop Mike either. It's kind of cute, and proves that 'Mad' Mike might have a heart after all.

Mike throws Vic up again onto Bob's back with ease and up this close Vic still looks ridiuclously small up there. He's also got this wicked, crazy grin on his face as Tony unclips the lead, guides the two of them to the track just with the reins. 

Jaime follows Mike to the rail to watch, Tony joining them as Vic heads off in the opposite direction. 

“Me and Tony are gonna head back and get Eddy, you can stay here”

They can't leave him here. He could get trampled. Jaime just smiles and nods though, reaching out to clench both hands tightly against the cold metal as they leave. Fuck, what if Vic comes back before they do? He can't be in charge of that shit.

The tracks busy, horses thundering past and Jaime thinks he sees Josh from before, white pants making him stand out and it's a good few minutes before he spots who he thinks is Vic, possibly next to Kellin. It is, because Kellin waves at him as they go by and Jaime's too shocked to return because they're going way too fast to be only holding on with one hand.

It's Kellin who comes back first, feet slipping out of the metal that holds him up, legs bounching against his horses sides as he's collected by a girl Jaime hasn't met, wearing the same green polo. He goes back to watching the track, is surprised by a body appearing bedside him a few seconds later.

Kellin. Slightly out of breath and holding his helmet in his hand, fringe sweaty. It probably isn't as effortless as they make it look and Jaime doesn't think he could even bend like that, knees practically to his ears for very long. 

“All by your lonesome, huh?”

“They went to get another horse” Jaime says, “I hope they're back before Vic is done”

Kellin laughs gently, bumps him with a shoulder. He's short enough that it's more him nudging Jaime's upper arm.

“I got your back” He says, “At least until someone notices i'm not back, I don't have any other rides today”

Jaime tries to make a thoughtful, intelligent sounding hmm. He's kind of thankful Kellin's here, sass and all. 

Vic passes by them again, a little slower this time and unlike Kellin he's focused on riding, looking straight ahead and Bob's ears are flat back against his head as he keeps trying to well, Jaime doesn't know but it involves a lot of head tossing and drifting back and forth from the inner rail and it can't end well. 

“What are they doing?” He finds himself asking because while Kellin might laugh at him he seems nice enough to give him a proper answer, not snap at him like Mike.

“Arguing about slowing down” Kellin says, “Vic would like to and Bob would not like too”

“Is that safe?” Jaime can't see how anyone can make something that outweighs them by so much do anything they don't want to. 

Kellin snorts, “It's pretty normal, they like to run and Fearless always had a knack for picking fights with the best of 'em, Bob's a bit of an asshole I think”

“Fearless?” Jaime echoes, because Josh had mentioned that name before. 

“Oh, that's Vic” Kellin say, “All of us jockeys and couple of track riders have cool nicknames, we run our own little stakes board and everything, gives us something to do instead of being at each others throats like at the big tracks, we're like a little family, you know?”

There's really only one point that Jaime zeroes in on.

“Vic's a jockey?” 

“Well he was, but none of us are gonna kick him out since the whole thing was practically his idea, that and he could kick our collective asses any day of the week”

Jockey or not, Fearless is a bad nickname to have. Maybe that's why he's strapped up, had some horrible racing accident. The thought kind of makes Jaime feel bad, because you've surely got to really like being a jockey to want to make a career out of it and stupid sport or not no one wants to go out like that.

He doesn't get to press Kellin for more information, for the story that has to behind such a name because said 'Fearless' returns then and by the look on Bob's face as he jigjogs along it's obvious that Vic's come away the winner of their little disagreement.

“Your boys have gone to get another” Kellin says, reaching out to pat Bob's sweaty neck.

“Shouldn't you be you know, working?”

“And leave poor Jaime here all by his lonesome? Who'd hold Bob for you then?”

Vic walks Bob a few steps out of Kellin's reach and manages to pull him to a very brief standstill before he slides off his back. There's a smug look on his face as he turns around to face them, leads Bob closer.

“You're not bothering our esteemed stablehand, are you?” Vic asks, “I told you to play nice”

“He's not” Jaime's quick to reassure since it turns out that yes, Vic did talk to Kellin after all. 

“I'm giving him lots of helpful information” Kellin says indignantly, “I'm a very helpful person”

Vic raises an eyebrow and Jaime just nods because yeah, Kellin is being kind of helpful. 

He goes back with Tony to the barn after him and Mike arrive with Eddy, quickly finds himself directed to a shovel. His muscles protest and there's a thin line of sweat down his back but Jaime finds that he doesn't mind all that much, mostly because this is the safest job there is. 

Mr Fuentes is down in one of the end doing exactly what Jaime's not sure and Tony is again tempting death by combing out another tail. The kid is gonna die.


	6. Practice Makes Perfect

Jaime's third or fourth afternoon shift (At this point they're all rolling into one long period of equine related terror) starts out reasonably easy. Mike, Tony and Vic take the horses swimming while he cleans the stalls of the missing horses and thinks about how happy he is that he didn't have to go and Mr Fuentes is brushing the vaguely brown horse Jaime hasn't had to personally encounter just yet. There's a slight breeze coming down the aisle and it's a lovely afternoon even if it's fraught with danger.

He hears them returning before he sees them, the clacking of hooves against the concrete and soon enough Bob, Eddy and Teeth have been returned to their now clean homes. 

“Dad, me and Tony are heading out” Mike calls as hangs Bobs halter on the hook outside his stall.

“Stay out of trouble” Is Mr Fuentes' reply from where his head is bent down by the brown horses stomach and Jaime pauses in his shovelling, vaguely wonders about the kinds of trouble Mike could be involved in.

“We'll think about it” Mike says with a grin, “Bye Jaime”

Mike's never said goodbye to him before. Maybe he's really going to get him and Tony into some kind of trouble. Vic comes down the aisle a few minutes later, hand brushing a strand of hair out of his eyes, “You almost done? I have a tall person job for you”

Jaime snorts, clangs the last shovelful into his wheelbarrow, he is in fact done, is down to about ten minutes a stall which is probably a world record for slowness but no ones told him to hurry up so far.

“Define tall person job” He says cautiously, because there's a big difference between getting something off a high shelf and whatever kind of terrifying thing you'd need to be tall to do with the horses, maybe clean their ears or something equally awful.

“Mike and Tony were supposed to get the hay out of the truck but they just ditched us for date night and it's stacked to the roof”

“Sure thing” Jaime says, before wait – “Date night?” He doesn't mean to say it out loud, it just happens like it so often does, mouth before brain that's Jaime Preciado. He hasn't really thought too much about Tony beyond the fact that he doesn't seem to talk and in retrospect it's not an entirely inconceivable idea that him and Mike are dating. Unexpected, but hardly the worst thing Mike could be doing.

Vic's eyes goes wide for a moment and it's obvious he didn't mean to let it slip. “Yeah” He says stiffly, “If it's, if you're not, you know”

He looks so awkward that Jaime takes pity on him, doesn't make him spell out the fact that if he's a homophobic asshole he's probably out of a job. 

“It's totally fine” He assures, “And i'm not just saying that because Mike looks like he could kill someone, i'm uh, kind of flexible myself”

There's a brief moment in which Vic seems to be unable to decide how to reply before he seems to shrug off his previous concern and replace it with an almost haughty grin.

“I'm sure you are” He says slowly, and Jaime can't help but to return the smile.

“Question though” He starts as they're walking down the aisle, “How old is Mike?”

“Twenty-three” Vic replies and Jaime nearly chokes. Vic laughs, pats him on the shoulder.

“You can't be serious, he looks fucking nineteen at best” There's no way Mike's older than him and Tony, how old could Tony be?

“Fuentes fountain of youth” Vic says brightly, “Tony's twenty-two so it's legal, if that's what you're worried about”

Tony's the same age as him. Jaime's not even sure how that's possible, he himself looks like he's going on thirty and someones father.

“So that makes you twelve” He says and Vic laughs again, squinting as they reach the end of the block and step outside into the sun and the light absolutely isn't making his hair seem to shine.

“I appreciate that but try twenty-five”

Well shit, Vic's got three years on him. Jaime's got about three feet though so he supposes that makes them even. Wisely, he decides not to mention it.

“What about you?” Vic continues as they reach the horse truck they must own, pulling a ring of keys from his pocket and sliding one into the lock at the back gate.

“Twenty two” Jaime says, “Do I even want to know how old Kellin is?”

Vic steps back and lowers the ramp down carefully and Jaime thought he was being over-dramatic but there is literally hay stacked to the roof at the front, large rubber coated what he guesses are dividers to stop the horses from murdering each other pressed up against one wall.

“Kellin's immortal” Vic says in a serious tone, “And you're not supposed to ask ladies how old they are anyway”

It's now Jaime's turn to snort ungracefully.

“If you could get them down and toss them to the back that'd be great” Vic says and Jaime nods, heads up the ramp, tries not to focus on how many bales there are but on how awesome his muscles will be. 

He has to stretch up to reach the highest few but after that it's not too hard of a job beyond getting hay all down his shirt and in his hair and sliding them to the front of the truck seems to take the most effort.

“Wouldn't it be easier if you came in and I passed them to you?” He pants a good ten minutes later when he doesn't shove yet another bale as far forward as it needs to go, has to walk up and push it to the ramps edge. Vic's hands pause from where they're wiggling under the twine.

“Mike was supposed to do it” He says quietly, “And it's kind of a bitch for me to walk up the down the ramp and back”

Jaime had kind of forgotten about Vic's knee, can see how it might be inconvenient and promptly feels bad.

“It's cool, just I feel like i'm terrible at this and being really slow and you're too nice to tell me” 

Vic beams up at him, “Practice makes perfect”

A million and one (Thirty-five Mr Fuentes had told him) bales unloaded and a few stalks pulled from the back of his jeans and Jaime's allowed to head home, Vic waving him off when he offers to help with the feed buckets.

The weekend is blissful. Jaime's so tired that he sleeps right through all his nieces and nephews and all their friends chasing each other around the house, his aunts bickering near muted from underneath his blankets. He only gets up for food, the bathroom and to make himself presentable for family lunch, an effort that's always proven to be worthwhile. It's very, very nice not to worry about being killed for more than a few hours and if by how sore his muscles continue to be he's going to be one ripped dude in a few months.

He keeps finding bits of hay everywhere and his mothers banned him from any future wandering through the house in his work clothes, says he'll have to get changed in the garage or as his uncle announces loudly to everyone at the dinner table, learn to carry a bale of hale properly or get one of the stablegirls to do it.

Idly, he wonders why Mr Fuentes doesn't replace him with a very qualified teenage girl who actually likes horses.

Monday morning rolls around all too soon and it kills him to have to get up before even the sun. 

Admittedly, Jaime's feeling a little bit more confident this week, at least about the getting to the right stable block, anyway. People still get quiet and stare at him as he goes by for the most part, but occasionally he'll get a stoic nod and Kellin is always loud and obnoxious if he's in sight. 

Judging by the silence Jaime presumes everyone's out swimming or exercising, jumps when Mike calls out a gruff morning greeting from the office. 

“Whoa” Mike says with a smirk, “Easy there”

Jaime very politely sticks his tongue out. He's such an adult and he must be feeling good to try something with Mike.

Mike, surprisingly, returns the favor before directing him to a bale of hay. 

“Sit” He says, “I'm nearly done with the feed”

Jaime sits, not opposed to not having to do anything quite so early on a Monday.

He leans back against the stall wall, listening to the rhythmic sound of Mike pouring grain and god knows what into the buckets, he could fall asleep if he wasn't in the back of his mind worried about a horse coming through the door to trample him.

“So, how was date night?” He asks, trying to make some conversation so he doesn't have to add the shame of falling asleep to his already embarrassing fear of horses and of course his brain goes for the most dangerous topic he could start.

The scoop Mike's holding bangs against the metal drum and looks up to give Jaime an unreadable but distinctly murderous look before it lessens and he merely shrugs.

“Alright, dinner, the usual” Is his answer and Vic must've mentioned telling him, something Jaime's very thankful for.

“Cool” Is all he can come up with for a reply, and then Mike's shoving a bucket towards his feet.

“Remember to watch out for Teeth” He says and hell, it's possible that Mike might not hate him as much as he pretends. Either that or it's a mess he doesn't want to deal with. Teeth could probably take a chunk of his brain out. 

Things get busy after that, Vic and Tony bringing horses back and forth and Mr Fuentes is either saddling up or..saddling off? Jaime's not entirely sure that sounds right but whatever and as soon as he's finished his stalls Vic's calling out to him, Mike heading out with Tony and Eddy.

“Come hang with me and Ben” 

Jaime agrees, mostly because no doubt Mr Fuentes could find something more horsey for him to do, falls into step with Vic as they lead Benny out the back and to the white ring again, Vic performing some kind of magic by managing to open the gate by getting Benny to step backwards and then around it, the big horse spinning on his back legs in a way that Jaime's almost getting used to, makes sure to keep himself out of kicking distance and then some. It's not until Vic's closed the gate behind himself that he swears loudly, looks back towards the stable blocks.

“Everything okay, did you forget something?” Vic's got his helmet and vest on, but who knows what kind of other thing he might've left behind, Jaime's sure he can make his way to get it safely enough with a really good description of the thing.

Vic looks at him with an almost sly smile.

“I'm sure you've noticed i'm quite short” He says slowly, “And that Benny is pretty tall”

Mike's not here. Mike's not here to throw Vic up and Jaime promptly takes a step away from the fence. Hell no. Hell fucking no.

“Hell fucking no” He says politely as he can manage and Vic's smile turns into a laugh, Benny's ears flicking back and forth.

“And here I was thinking i'd ask you to ride, can you go and grab whoever's free?”

The first person Jaime sees when he enters the stable is Tony quickly followed by Mike, both of them carrying saddles back to the stall they go in and Jaime pauses awkwardly in the aisle. Tony sees him first, nudging Mike in the shoulder.

“Vic needs help getting on Benny” He says as they put the saddles away and Mike nods, “I got it” He tells Tony, “You take care of Magic”

Mikes' halfway out the door before he turns around, “You coming?” and Jaime quickly falls into step with him, crossing the yard and Vic's walking Benny around in circles without holding onto him, hands shoved in his pockets.

Mike looks at him, smirk irritatingly similar to Vic's. “I'm guessing you said no very politely”

“I'd die” Jaime blurts, “Or kill Vic” He very much doesn't want to kill Vic. Mike laughs a lot louder than Vic had, ducking through the fence panels, Benny coming very briefly to a pause as he grabs hold of his brother.

In the afternoon he's recruited for swimming, without Kellin but with Mr Fuentes as well as Mike and Vic, three horses in tow.

“Today we're going to teach you how to swim” Mr Fuentes says casually when they arrive at the lanes, “It's really just a matter of holding the rope steady”

There's a million and one ways Jaime could fuck this up. He isn't ready for this kind of responsibility.

“Are you sure?” He asks, “If there's a way to mess it up i'll find it”

“You'll be fine” Mike says flatly, which is totally reassuring.

Mike and Vic guide Eddy into the water first before Mr Fuentes takes the rope from him, Mike wandering off with Benny to let him pull at the clover.

“Here, walk with me” Mr Fuentes says, “The idea of the rope lines is to keep the horses in the middle of the pool, otherwise some of them get ideas about trying to climb out and hurt themselves”

Horses are a hell of a lot stronger than people, so Jaime's more worried about getting pulled in and drowning.

“How don't you fall in?” He asks as they keep walking and Mr Fuentes gives him a smile.

“You don't” Vic throws in before he can answer, “Always pay attention and keep away from the edge”

“Vic's just unlucky” Mr Fuentes says fondly, “I've been doing this for thirty years in far worse conditions than these and only gone in a handful of times”

Personally, once seems like an exessive amount of times.

“It easiest to hold the rope behind you, like this” Mr Fuentes explains, rope pulled behind his waist, “If you hold on with both hands it's harder to lose and you've got more force to pull if you have to, the boys will always do the directing, all you need to do is hold on and do what they tell you – the horses will tug you a little but that's normal”

With that, Jaime suddenly finds the rope in his hands, heavy and wet against his back. He's several steps away from the edge but he's sure with every bob of his head Eddy's trying to pull him in, plotting against him.

The closer they get to the other end the more nervous Jaime gets and he's sweating, heart thumping in his chest with every step he takes.

“You're going fine” Vic calls across the water, completely relaxed with Bob's lead in his other hand, “We're going to turn in about two lengths, you need to give me some slack and lift the rope straight up when I tell you, okay?

Jaime panics, hands clinging to the rope as he struggles to unwrap it and be ready to lift, he's got no idea how long two lengths is, can't help the mildly terrified vague sound that comes from his lips before Mr Fuentes' hands are on his shoulders, shaping the rope into his hands.

“Vic's got him, you just need to hold the rope high enough he won't get tangled up, there you go, now grab it again”

It all happens so quickly he barely keeps up, Eddy turning around with a splash and a snort, Vic pulling him around and guiding him back to the middle of the water. The relief hits him sharply, he hasn't fucked this up for them.

“Not too bad for a first go” Mike says suddenly from behind him, predictably causing him to jump a little. Mike's smiling at him, a genuine smile that reaches his eyes and Vic's still alive and well on the other side, Mr Fuentes nodding at him. He almost feels proud of himself, despite the obvious simplicity of the task.

“Practice makes perfect” Mr Fuentes says, “You can try again tomorrow, you've gone awfully pale”


	7. Handling Trials

Swimming doesn't get easier the second or third time. makes Jaime so tense when he does it that his whole body aches well into each morning and between his barely stifled laughter even Kellin had tried to calm him down a little, patting him on the back reassuringly but he's still a nervous wreck, knowing that he's being relied upon to not fuck it up, get himself or Vic drowned.

It's Wednesday and agreeing to come in an hour earlier to help get the horses ready for what Mr Fuentes had called barrier trials and Vic had helpfully elaborated upon – practising getting the newer horses into what Jaime's already personally labelled the row of metal-death-cages (Seriously, he's sure he's seen news footage of jockeys being crushed inside them, trampled but it's something he's absolutely not going to Google to check) – had seemed like a great idea yesterday afternoon. Fuck, he's so sore. How everyone works harder than him every single day and don't seem to tire is crazy, especially Vic. 

The stables are a hive of activity already as he pulls up, large horse trucks scattered across the parking lot, a particularly shiny one with what might be the name of the stable Kellin works for emblazoned across the side. They make the Fuentes' truck seem like a childs toy in comparison and Jaime makes sure to keep well away from the open backs lest a horse break away from the person leading them and decide to attack. Swimming has not improved his equine outlook all that much.

It's still dark beyond the bright floodlights and the first person he spots is Tony carrying buckets of feed down the aisle, dressed uncharacteristically in blue jeans and black polo shirt. 

“Morning” Jaime greets and gets a nod in return, he still hasn't heard the other man utter a single word in his presence. 

“Jaime!” Mr Fuentes calls, “Down here” a tattooed hand, Mike's, waves out of one of the stalls at the other end of the barn and Jaime wanders down, hopes that they're not going to start morning swimming or something, he's not sure his nerves could take it this early. 

Mike's dressed up too, even if his jeans are held up by a studded belt and the sleeves of his polo rolled up, Mr Fuentes in a plaid brown jacket and fuck, Jaime gave up trying to keep his boots clean days ago, might be wearing yesterdays jeans.

“We always try to make a good impression on the stewards” Mr Fuentes says as he brushes out Benny's tail, “This is my lucky jacket”

Mike snorts loudly from where he's bent down by Benny's feet, causing the horse to swing his huge head around, ears flicking back and forth “One race is hardly lucky” 

“That coming from the guy who swears on his lucky get laid shoes” Vic's voice chimes in and Jaime doesn't flinch exactly, it's more of a nervous twitch now.

“Just because you're not getting any” Mike strikes back, “Don't diss the shoes, they got me Tony didn't they?”

“I'd call that more of a miracle than any luck on your part” Vic says but there's a fond smile on his face, even when Mike stands up just to flip him off.

Vic's taking dressed up to a different level, wearing a pair of the same tall, black shiny boots Jaime's seen actual jockeys wearing, skin tight beige pants, long sleeve undershirt beneath his polo and on some level a small part of his brain takes note of how shapely Vic's thighs are. He's also not wearing his usual wraps, seems a bit naked without them.

The stables are busy when they finally start making their way to the track, Benny sleek and shiny, his white bits almost glowing against the early light and the dressed to impress memo seems to be a trackwide thing, men in suit jackets everywhere.

At the base of the track they join a queue of horses and riders waiting to mount and head up the the huge death-crates Jaime can just see up the other end on the grass, Mr Fuentes heading over to what must be a steward in bright red shirt, gets something marked off on a clipboard. There's a few familiar faces, the tall jockey from Kellin's stable and Kellin himself, who offers wave from across the yard.

“Barrier trials are pretty serious business” Mike intones from beside him, Tony walking Benny around and Vic doing something with his helmet straps, “This is technically a preworks, just so everyone can get an idea of where their horses are at, the actual trials are done only by jockeys”

Jaime nods, appreciating that Mike is actually taking a minute to catch him up.

“It seems kind of dangerous” He offers, “Those box things don't look all that big”

“The barriers are pretty fucking small” Vic agrees, finally putting his helmet on and snapping it up, “But it's not that bad really”

“You would say that” Mike grumbles, “I can't believe you agreed to ride for Almaraz too”

Vic looks nonplussed, shrugging as he turns to tugging as his vest. “It's good money and I know Kellin hates trials”

Kellin doesn't seem like the type to hate anything, so Jaime immediately feels more nervous than usual. 

“He only hates it because if you don't do it he gets the worst horses and we don't need the money you know that, if he hates he so much why doesn't he say no?” Mike's voice has gotten louder, quickly agitated.

“Because he wants to keep his job” Vic snaps back, “Just leave it okay, i'm riding, checks already in the truck”

“Vic, I -”

“Boys, please” Mr Fuentes interrupts and Jaime's glad for it, “Save the arguing for later”

“Fine” Mike says stiffly, Vic echoing the sentiment.

“You're both adults” Mr Fuentes says patiently, “You know that within reason i'll respect your decisions, if Vic wants to trial i'm happy for him to do that”

“You know I always want to” Vic grumbles before he catches Jaime's eye, expression softening. “All we've really achieved with this is terrifying poor Jaime here, look at his face”

Jaime promptly tries to shape his face into a neutral expression and likely fails miserably. Mike and Vic arguing is very off-putting, the idea of Vic riding anyones 'worst horse' even more so. If he had to, Jaime would pick any of the Fuentes' horses over anyone elses, doesn't want Vic to do something that even rattles the unrattleable Kellin. 

“Everyone out there, Vic included, is more than qualified” Mr Fuentes says, “Don't you worry about a thing Jaime”

It's not really the reassurance Jaime's looking for but he forces a wry sort of smile onto his face has Tony and Benny reappear, a group of horses beginning to make their way out onto the track.

Despite their disagreement Mike boosts Vic up, Tony passing him the reins and unclipping the lead, fingers coming to rest against Vic's knee.

“Don't you start too” Vic commands, “You know the stewards don't like the strapping”

Tony doesn't respond, just pats said knee and steps back.

“Hold him back on the way up” Mr Fuentes says, “If he breaks well let him go, be nice to see how he does up against that Riversound colt out of Baringa”

“Will do” Vic agrees, “See you guys on the flip side” 

With that, him and Benny are heading out.

“I'm gonna stay here to pick him up” Mike says and Mr Fuentes nods, “Tony?”

Tony steps over to Mr Fuentes, “Jaime, did you want to stay here with Mike or come up with us?”

Jaime has no idea what's going to be worse but in a split second decision he figures he doesn't want to see the barriers up that close, just in case someone really does get crushed in there.

“Down here” He says quickly, before he defers to Mike.“If that's okay?” 

He seems pretty pissed and Jaime doesn't want to annoy him. Mike just shrugs and soon enough Tony and Mr Fuentes have flagged down a passing golf cart and gotten themselves a ride up the track and it's just him and Mike, horses still coming and going, Kellin and Kellin's tall friend leaving the yard on their own horses.

“I'm not really angry with him” Mike concedes after a few minutes of silence, the two of them now leaning against the railing, “He just doesn't need to go as hard as does, fucking adrenaline junkie”

Jaime can't think of a single decent response to that, seeing as how he's still of the opinion of horse racing in general being pretty stupid but Mike is making an effort to talk to him and he has to say something.

“How dangerous is it out there?” He finds himself asking, “From your perspective, I think everyone knows how I feel”

Mike lets out a small huff of laughter, “I'm not going to lie and say shit doesn't happen but everyone wants to go home at the end of the day in one piece so it's as safe as it can be for what it is”

The horses become specks in the distance before Mike speaks again. “Trials carry a bit more risk to them because the horses are young, a lot of the big name jockeys won't even touch them which is why the money is better, but Vic's not really in it for that”

Jaime has many questions. What happened out there that makes Mike not want Vic to ride, cause the only friction he's seen in the brothers – what drives Vic to go out there anyway and how much money is considered good money to do something that is apparently more dangerous than actually racing?

The wait is agonising, horses presumably being loaded into the barriers but seeming to take forever and Mike's pulled a wadded scrap of paper from his jeans pocket, “Vic's in the first with Benny, then the fifth and sixth with whatever terrors Alamaraz finds for him”

A bell echoes down the empty track and the gates must open, horses coming out and down the track and Jaime can't pick out Vic and Benny from this distance but no one looks to have fallen, six blobs marking the six horses listed on Mike's guide.

When Vic comes bouncing back on Benny his grin is so wide it's almost startling, teeth bared and cheeks flushed and Jaime can't say he looks anything less than elated, completely and entirely joyful. 

“Broke like a dream” He announces breathlessly as Mike grabs the reins so he can swing himself onto the ground, “All that work you did paid off”

“It should've, it took months to get him to even get him in the damn thing, remember?” Mike grumbles but he's smiling now too, the tension from before disappearing as quickly as it had arrived. Benny's breathing hard, slobbering everywhere and god, Jaime doe not want to be sneezed on. Again.

“Not too shabby” Kellins voice breaks into the conversation as he comes up to offer Vic a hi-five which is accepted, “Happy i'm done with just the one though”

“How are your two really?” Vic asks, “Be honest, but not so honest Jaime has a heart attack, we haven't really been helping him get over his fear all that much today”

Kellin laughs, “The colt'll fight for his head the whole time but he's not gonna go up on you, the filly might but she's more of a backer”

“Lovely” Mike comments wryly, “Just lovely”

“Hey, they're way better than when we got them in” Kellin defends, “Josh has a few more to ride so i'll be around if you two want to go, i'll keep an eye on Mr Fearless here”

“I don't care if someone brings a zebra onto the track you don't ride anything else, okay?” Mike says sternly, “At least not unless I get a turn first”

Strangely enough or not, since he's always put in charge of wrangling his younger relatives Jaime has seen the movie with the racing zebra – he's sure it's on DVD in their house somewhere, it wasn't all that bad, despite the terrifying prospect of teenage girl jockeys which although they surely exist if Jaime ever has a daughter he'll let her date anyone she wants if she never takes it up.

Back at the stables Mr Fuentes has ditched his jacket for a jumper and the suns up now, things in their block and everyone elses moving into the normal morning routine.

“Trackworks delayed” Mr Fuentes tells him, “We've got a few spare stalls so Tony will move a horse or two at a time out for you”

The entire time he's working Jaime keeps glancing down the aisle, waiting for Vic to come back. He's not worried (Well he is, but what can he do) but the sooner he sights the other man in one piece he might be able to relax is vice like grip on the shovel just a little bit.

He's up to sweeping when Vic finally, finally appears in the doorway, helmet in his hand and from out of thin air Mike appears with a bottle of water as if he's been waiting anxiously too.

“I think i've earnt myself a beer after that” Vic says breathlessly as he wanders towards them and his hair is damp, stuck to his forehead with sweat but he's in one piece as far as Jaime can see, maybe the slightest limp but he can't be sure, no missing limbs or blood shooting everywhere. The relief he feels is very, very real. Of course Vic's fine, he's a professional death-defier.

“At least wait until ten” Mike says exasperatedly but he's taking Vic's helmet from him, helping him unstick the the thick velcro of his vest, “Didn't get dumped on your ass?”

“Not this time, Kellin gave them a stern talking to, might've actually worked”

Mike laughs, taking the vest as well and passing Vic the water and look, it's not entirely unappealing the way the smaller man uncaps and takes a swig from the bottle, head tilted back just far enough to show that his neck's sweaty also, a few strands of hair curled around it. Maybe Vic's right, a beer does sound good.

Jaime has his now regular old-man-afternoon-nap after lunch, enjoying the peace and quiet before his cousins in school bring their friends homes for what they're calling a homework party but is more preteen giggling than anything else and no doubt all said friends will be staying for dinner and it's exactly this kind of thing that keeps him going back to Victory shift after shift. That and he's coming to genuinely enjoy Vic's company, and everyone elses too – bar the horses.

He snags the park next to the Fuentes' truck in the lot, ends up trailing after Mike and Tony on their way to swim Teeth and the brown horse Tony usually brushes.

“This is Magic” Mike says, like he's catalogued what horses Jaime knows and which ones he doesn't. He could have, but “Tony thinks you'll like them more if you know all their names”

Very unlikely, though it's nice to know that Tony doesn't hate him or anything, despite the lack of conversation between them. Magic is only a slightly better nickname than Bob and maybe only slightly less likely to try and kill him, walking so close to Tony her heads practically on his shoulder.

Jaime wonders where Vic is but doesn't have time to ask before he appears, coming from the other direction with Kellin, limping along in a way that makes Jaime wince, knee strapped if anything more than usual. Vic said he was fine, looked completely fine when they'd left that morning.

“Jaime-pajimey” Kellin greets cheerfully, “Ready for another fun swimming adventure?”

Jaime's really not. Kellin doesn't seem concerned in the slightest Vic's not okay. Still, he finds himself nodding.

The others go ahead, walking faster but Jaime falls into step with Vic or Vic falls into step him, he's not denying he might've slowed his pace enough so that the smaller man doesn't have to rush to keep up with him.

“Are you okay?” He has to ask, because no one else seems to give a damn. Vic shouldn't be walking around, shouldn't be heading towards the swimming lanes with no doubt every intention of swimming a horse himself. He half expects Vic to brush him off like he has Mike and Tony but instead he gets a smile and Vic pauses mid-step just long enough to pat him on the shoulder in exactly the same way Mr Fuentes does.

“I'm just getting old, doesn't take much to mess my knee up as i'm sure you've noticed” Vic says, “Everyone's tried to get me to stay home but I might as well be here”

Personally, Jaime thinks Vic should have stayed home, can imagine him sitting on a couch with a blanket not moving and not limping along in an awful way.

At the water it's decided that Kellin and Tony will take Teeth and Jaime spares a moment to wonder how long they've known Kellin, if Tony ever says anything to him. Maybe he'll ask.

“Jaime, you're up” Mike calls as he walks Magic down, quickly clipping and unclipping the ropes and Jaime takes a deep breath. It has to get less stressful eventually, right?

“I can do it” Vic protests from beside him, “Or at least shadow Jaime”

“Jaime can do it just fine” Mike says and a nice warm feeling fills Jaimes gut at Mike not implying he's a complete and utter failure, “You just take a leaf out of Kellin's book and stand there and look pretty” 

Kellin makes an indignant sound from across the water and Vic sticks his tongue out but shifts his weight onto his good leg, doesn't argue or try to follow as Jaime makes his way to grab his rope.

At the stables Vic is again relegated to looking pretty, Mr Fuentes rather pointedly directing him to mix the feed and 'sit down while you're doing it for gods sake' which makes Jaime feel a million times better, lets him concentrate on poking the hose through the stall bars at just the right angle to not get a face full of backspray. It's a careful art.

Tony splits sweeping with him and Jaime's carrying the brooms back to where they go, stacked precariously next to his wheelbarrow and multiple shovels and rakes all in varying conditions when Vic hops down towards him, hand bracing on the stall rails.

“Dad says you're free to go, we're just waiting on a call from a guy about a horse”

“Sure thing” Jaime says, wedging the brooms next to an ancient looking pitchfork, “You want a hand to wherever you're going?

He figures he should ask being that Vic is hopping and not walking. 

“I'm good just stiffened up a bit, probably going to rain” He says with a wink and at least three of Jaime's uncles with vague injuries swear by the rain thing so it's entirely possible, even if Vic's just trying to make him feel better.

“See you in the morning then”

“Bright and early” Vic replies.

He gets about fifteen feet away before Vic's voice calls after him.

“Actually, I wouldn't mind a hand to the truck if you're offering, might as well wait somewhere more comfortable”

“No problem” Jaime says, walking back over, “You want me to carry you over the threshold?” He's joking, would probably drop Vic his muscles are so sore.

Vic laughs, “Marry me first and i'll think about it, if you could just hop me along that'd be awesome”

Vic's warm against him, the height difference even more noticeable by the way Vic's curls are brushing against his chin and as awkward as he might feel it's obvious Vic isn't concerned at all, leant up against him as they start to make their way towards the truck, Jaime shifting his arm around Vic's waist to take his weight.

They crunch silently across the asphalt and honestly Jaime wouldn't really mind if it had taken longer to get to their destination. Vic untangles himself to reach into his pocket and produce a key, unlocking the door before he goes to climb in, aborting halfway and making what could only be considered a tiny yelp, followed by several swear words in more than one language.

“Motherfucker” Vic whines a bit louder, “Wrong foot first, fuck”

To be fair, it's a bit of a stretch to get into the cab if you're short, metal step obviously built in to help and Jaime just wants to take Vic home with him, make sure he's okay. He's not sure what to actually do, just watches Vic swear a few more times before he looks around warily, scanning the area for what Jaime's not sure.

“Mike'll never let me live it down” Vic confesses, “But you wanna give me a boost, it's not even a horse this time”

Jaime snorts, “If the truck tries to kill you we've got bigger problems”

He pulls the door open all the way, Vic turning around and Jaime takes a deep breath and just goes for it, hopes he doesn't get too enthusiastic and smack Vic's head into something. Vic steps up on his good leg and Jaime catches the rest of him the only way that comes into his head, one hand on Vic's back and the other well, he kind of holds Vic's ass and pushes. 

His hands. His hands were definitely just on Vic's ass. It works, Vic able to pull himself the rest of the way, grinning down at him from his seat but fuck, you don't just go around putting your hands on others mens asses. It's very likely grounds for Mike to come after him, putting his hands on his brother like that. 

“Sorry” He blurts, “I didn't mean to, you know, my hands”

Vic winks at him, “No complaints about your method here” and hopefully it's getting dark enough that Jaime's blush isn't all that noticeable.

That night Jaime carries a weird mix of worry and well, whatever weird feeling it is that he's feeling after having his hands on Vic's ass, having him pressed close and kind of liking it around with him, all through dinner and a shower and into his bed. He knows that Vic's grown ass man who can take care of himself but he hopes that Mike's at least looking out for him, not letting him do anything stupid.


End file.
